The James H ProvostMemorial Lecture Series

The School of Canon Law hosts an annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture, during the Spring semester. This lecture series is supported through the generosity of family and friends of Rev. Provost. Contributions can be made to the Provost Memorial Fund, School of Canon Law. For more information please call the School of Canon Law, 202-319-5492 or e-mail cua-canonlaw@cua.edu.

Biographical Note:

Rev. James H. Provost, a priest of the Diocese of Helena, Montana, and ordinary professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, died on August 26, 2000 in Washington, D.C., at the age of 60, of complications from lymphoma.

Rev. Provost did his undergraduate studies at Carroll College in Helena and his theological studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, earning an M.A. and S.T.B. He was ordained at the American College in June, 1963. In 1967 he received a doctorate in canon law from the Lateran University in Rome.

From 1967 to 1979, Rev. Provost served as Chancellor and Officialis of the tribunal for the Diocese of Helena. He served as a member of the Canon Law Society of America, in 1977-1978 and as its Executive Coordinator from 1980 to 1986. The Society awarded him its highest honor, the Role of Law Award, in 1991.

In 1979, he joined the faculty of canon law at The Catholic University of America and served as Chair of the Department from 1987-1998. From 1980 until his death, he served as the managing editor of the faculty's journal, The Jurist.

Rev. Provost published scholarly, pastoral and popular articles in a variety of publications, including national and international canon law journals. He also lectured frequently on canonical and pastoral topics in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. He was a member of the board of directors of the Consociation Internationalis Studio Iuris Canonici Promovendo. For 10 years, he served as one of the directors for the Church Order section of the international theological journal Concilium. Since 1997, he had been a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States.

Past Provost Lectures:

The Twelfth Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 19, 2015 Speaker: Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio
Archbishop of the Military Services, USA
"The Pastoral Dimension of the Office of Papal Representatives"

The Eleventh Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 20, 2014 Speaker: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Prefect, Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
"The Relation between the Apostolic Signatura and the Local Church"

The Tenth Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 14, 2013
[Lecture cancelled; papal conclave; text published in The Jurist.]Speaker: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Prefect, Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
"The Role of the Apostolic Signatura in the Life of the Church"

The Eighth Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 24, 2011Speaker: Prof. dr. E.C. Coppens
Professor of History of Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen Netherlands
"Misericordia: extra Codicem, in Justitia. A Historical View on the Jurisdictional Limits of Codified Law"

The Seventh Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 18, 2010Speaker: His Grace, Roland Minnerath, Archbishop of Dijon France
"Relationship between Church and State"

The Third Annual James H. Provost Memorial Lecture - March 23, 2006Speaker: Rev. Nikolaus Schöch, O.F.M.
Defender of the Bond of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
"Relegation of Churches to Profane Use (c. 1222, § 2) - Reasons and Procedure"